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hot - it ought to be served hot, and then we should be able to
cool it down for ourselves. Smooth as anything. I would have
liked a bit of lobster garnish, but nobody else at the place
got any (I spied), so why should we be anything different.
Terrine of grilled vegetables, walnut oil & balsamic vinaigrette.
It was the week of the sugar snap pea and of the walnut-balsamic
vinaigrette, I guess. The terrine was amusing, eggplant serving
for the outside, the grilled vegetables including red and green
peppers, shiitake and regular mushrooms, carrots, and green and
yellow squash, all bound together in a vegetable aspic (I wanted
a wine aspic, but this was okay). Again, there was a balance
problem in the dish - the vinaigrette (this one a real vinaigrette)
was just too strong for the vegetables, and there was too much of
it. A pool of vinegar (even good vinegar) at the bottom of your
plate is not a good thing.
Rex Hill (Willamette Valley) Chard 1991 came with this appetizer,
but we didn't drink it until we got to the next dish. The wine
proved to be a better than average Chard in a compromise style,
between butter-oak and fresh-citrus. There was a touch of bitterness
in the finish that worked well with
Wild mushrooms and pancetta hachis wrapped in phyllo, sauteed spinach,
grilled salmon in mushroom "jus." A cute dish. Good mushrooms, whose
identity was lost to the Cuisinart, but which I guess to have been
portobellos, shiitakes, and crimini. Funny thing is that the guys don't
seem to go out of their way to find odd mushrooms anymore - liability
problems, perhaps? Three triangles of mushroom boerek, I guess you'd
call it (made with frozen phyllo, a no-no, and not-quite-fresh phyllo,
at that, a big no-no). The "jus" was a creamed puree of mushrooms, and
a little blob of sauteed spinach (good) in the middle completed the dish.
It would have been stunning if the phyllo were a tad younger.
Rack of lamb, carrot and tomato demi-glace, potato custard, asparagus
in beurre blanc, ratatouille. Perfect medium-rare lamb, tenderest I've
had in a long time, with a pretty aggressively carroted and tomatoed
sauce. The potato custard was fine, the beurre blanc perfect, the
ratatouille just what you'd expect. Good.
Duck again, this time a classic but somewhat too sweet a l'orange.
I didn't notice the vegetables, which might have been the same ones,
but anyway the sauce, made with a very fine duck stock, was still
too sweet. Many points in the favor of Gerard and his minions was
the fact that the breast came roasted medium-rare, and the leg
returned to a kettle of duck stock to braise for maybe half an hour
more. Good, but not as good as the lamb.
Rex Hill (Willamette Valley) Pinot Noir 1990 was a wine worth
seeking out. In it the feared grassy-green peppery quality of
so many of these reds has transformed into the cedar-mint
quality of a French red. A lot of good berry scent as well,
and a rich presence in the mouth. Enough tannin and other acid
to stand up to the rich food.
Currant-mint sorbet. Harmonized with the wine, which was a bit
currant-minty itself, but it came as a great big glob, where
half the amount would have been welcome.
Mixed greens. Heavy on the spiky, peppery greens, but otherwise
like every other salad in town. Balsamic vinaigrette as usual,
but not too much of it. I didn't ask about the oil, but it was
not olive; probably that walnut again.
Meursault (Drouhin) 1993. An intermezzo here; I'd told Stephan the
sommelier that I didn't like Drouhin Meursault and hadn't had any
since the late '70s. He equally vehemently argued the virtue of
the stuff (I admitted that I like other Drouhin wines, some of them
a lot) and ended up pouring me a glass of the '93. It was exactly
as I recalled: very assertive on the palate - one taste and the
acid goes Whammo! and the nuttiness and spiciness that one reads
about subordinated to an off-aroma. Good color and legs, long
finish of butter (rancid butter, I thought, but I'm prejudiced).
Apple tart with caramel sauce and raspberry sauce. A well-executed
plain, ordinary apple tart, a couple of tablespoons of fluffy
custard underneath the slices of tart apple. A very sweet caramel
sauce surrounded it, edged with raspberry puree. The pastry was
a little overdone at the edges, but otherwise a good dessert.
With this we had Ch. Guiraud 1990, a complex, well-Botrytized wine
that was way too young - the good fruit and spice predominated, but
the honeyed character of a first-class Sauternes was in the background -
I'd say another 5 years would be needed to bring it out, and 5 more
after that to take it to peak. My guest didn't like it nearly so much
as the Filhot '88 from yesterday, a much more up-front wine but also
much closer to maturity.
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* KingQWK 1.05 # 187 *Seattle, WA